Movies of Kay's Era: "Calling Philo Vance" (1940)

 

The appeal of the secret language calls to us all

 

Korean War health issues for military personnel -- issues from Kay's era

Kay served first as an enlisted member of the WAAC and then later within civillian personnel at Scott Field, and then she shifted to doing more War / Defense Bond rallies as the Second World War ended. This era was ending for Kay about the time that the Korean conflict began. She still had many connections with active military folks and veterans, so circumstances involving those who went to Korea are part of Kay's story. 

In researching the experiences of those who served in Korean, I became aware of troop numbers involving viral infections. A significant number of U.S. soldiers got sick from hanta viruses (inhaaled as dust from rodine urine and feces) and Japanese encephalitis, borne by mosquitoes. 

Another health hazard for soldiers in Korea was exposure to cold.  I was pretty shocked to read on this government website that a winter campaign in 1950 involved soldiers fighting in temperatures that reached fifty below zero. 

Korean War weaponry -- Kay's military world

 Kay worked on an air base, mostly with radio and electronics as well as music for the military bands. But anybody in the military knew more than the average cicilian about the weapons used. One carry-over from the Second World War to the Korean conflict was the "qusd 50," aka "the meat chopper," a weapon in a wheekled carrier or on a tank which shot 50 caliber shells from a four-gun array. This  video is by a weapon experet who has recreated a working model from vintage parts. 

Links to videos connected with the book MacArther's Spies

https://www.esquiremag.ph/the-good-life/pursuits/5-famous-spies-that-made-philippine-history-a00184-20180108-lfrm

https://www.c-span.org/video/?301941-1/douglas-macarthur-story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yq1dpCLvTM

https://www.c-span.org/video/?428592-2/macarthurs-spies

Celebrities of Kay's Day: Lawrence Welk is a guest on Smokey the Bear's radio show

 Hard to say who was the bigger name, but perhaps Smokey?

 

You can hear the program here.

Newsmakers of Kay's Day: The Saboteur

TIME magazine article

Vanity Fair article

Artists of Kay's Day: Helen Humes

 Helen Humes singing "Blue Prelude":

Artists of Kay's Day: Buck Clayton

 "cup-Mute Clayton" featuring Buck Clayton

Here's a short article I found on Clayton on a jazz blog. 

Why Did She Falls for the Leader of the Band? Some hits from British bandleader Jack Hytton

 

 

 The items, sayings, and people mentioned in these lyrics don't perfectly match up with the time period of Kay Kemble's life which is the focus of this blog (1938-1952) but some of the stuff does. And more imporantly, the song came out in 1972 when people of a certain age were already feeling that the popular culture of their youth was disapprearing. One of the reasons I find it satisfying to try and make Kay's life and world real to modern people is that I have empathy for folks who feel left behind in a world which no longer understands their life experiences. 

Parody newsreel with funny visuals and comedian protraying the infamous Lord Haw-Haw

 "Lord Haw-Haw" was a public figure everyone in the world knew during Kay's era. 

Sports in Kay's era: the 1942 Rose Bowl

 Here's a short video clip about the relocation of the annual football game from Pasadena to Durham, North Carolina. The Los Angles Times published a brief history piece which sums it up.

Belgian humor at the Germans' expense

 The Kay Kemble project has stretched me in various ways, including learning about history, culture, and geography. I'm afraid my knowledge of Belgium used to be fancy horses, good beer, Jacques Brel, and Hercule Poirot, the last of whom wasn't even a real person.

But a while back I made a note to myself to look up the history of the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. The paper was taken over in 1940 by collaborationists who accepted the German occupation. In 1943, a resistance group published a parody of Nazi-positive version of Le Soir, which came to be known as the Faux Soir. 

 

In the 1950s, a comedy film called "Un Soir de Joie:" depicted the Faux Soir being created and distributed. My French is both limited and terrible but this video clip gave me the basic idea of the 1954 film, which apparently was re-released in 1959.

 

This Wikipedia article gives a good summation of what was in the parody, how it reached the public, and the story of what happened afterward.

Crime in Kay's day: New York City's "Mad Bomber"

Front page of 1951 newspaper:

 

For details on the search for George Metesky and the early profiling techniques used to find him, you can go here and here.

Forgettable culture from Kay's era #1: Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937)

 The Kay Kemble project is of course dedicated to preserving culture and history, but sometimes just because something's old, it doesn't make it good. Asnd throwing together a sprinkling of celebrities with a bunch of character actors and some animals with everyone yelling doesn't really make a good screwball comedy. 

Toxic beauty magazine ad from Kay's era

 

Celebrities of Kay's Era: Betty Garrfett

 

A record that was NOT in contention for the theme to Kay's radio show " Boogie Woogie Baton"

 A family legend has it that Kay let the needle get halfway through this recording before she took the platter off the turnable, opened the window over the alley, and let the 78 rpm spin out into thin air. 

Roy Rogers band lineup

 

"Holly" Hollinger was in "Any Bonds Today?"

Roy rogers Band Personnel: Roy Rogers (vocals); Lloyd Perryman, Leonard Slye (vocals, guitar); Ken Carson, Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan (vocals); Virgil Dehne, Dick Reinhart, Woodrow Wines, Jimmy Wakely, Karl Farr (guitar); Homer Rhodes, Sam Koki (steel guitar); Hugh Farr (violin, bass violin, fiddle); Spade Cooley, Carl Cotner (fiddle); Johnny Kiddo (accordion); Robert E. Nelson (clarinet); Wilmot "Holly" Hollinger (trumpet).

Bandleader Henry Russell on Old-Time Radio

 Henry Russell and his Orchestra Sealt5estVariety Theater (1947-1949),The Screen Directors' Playhouse (1949-1951, The Halls of Ivy (1950-1952), Fitch Bandwagon (1938-1948)

Another theme song Kay used on the radio show "Boogie Woogie Baton"

 

One of the theme songs Kazy used for her radio show "Boogie Woogie Baton"

 ht

Boob McNutt and other strange cultural moments

 AS couple of weeks ago, I was reading a collection of comedy essays, some written in the 1970s, and Russell Baker mentioned cultural icons including "Boob McNutt." I spent three minutes adjusting to the reality that there was ever a character called that. There was -- he appeared in a comic strip by Rube Goldberg.

Cartoon history:

The Art of Rube Goldberg

Comic Art in America

Rube Goldberg: A Retrospective

While doing Boob McNutt research, I came actross this 1930 movie based on Rube Goldberg's inventions. 

Old Time Radio: the hosts for Family Theater

 In the 1940s and 1950s, a variety of celebrities hosted episodes of "Family Theater," from accordionist/singer/actor Dick Contino to actor MacDpnald Carey. 

George Murphy hosted Family Theater episode "A Bunch of Keys"

Kay's Era -- there was often a radio version when a new movie came out

 Jack Benny in the radio version of "The Horn Blows at Midnight" on the Ford Theater program:

I like the image in the video above but the version below has better audio quality. 

Another radio version on a program sponsored by Grape Nuts:  

The early television program "Omnibus" presented a viewable version of The Horn Blows at Midnight in 1953.

The film's poor reception have Benny comedy fodder for years on his radio show. And old-time radio buffs collect recorfdings of radio versions, including the one at the Ford Theater. Here's an old LP version. 

Kay's first instrument was the accordion!

  During the time Kay was taking courses for a teaching certificate and then again for a period after graduation, Kay supported herself by giving piano lessons. But she hadn't grown up with a piano in the home; her keyboard skills came from a piano accordion which sat in her family's living room. The instrument belonged to Kay's cousin, with whom (along with Kay's sister) Kay sang in a girl-trio on the radio for fifteen minutes twice a week. The cousin came to town in the fuel-oil delivery truck her father drove as his job, and there was no room for the squeezebox in the cab of the truck, so it was left with Kay's family between radio performances. Kay taught herself to play it by using sheet music meant for the Hawaiian guitar. "It had diagrams for tuning," said Kay. "And it gave the notes for the guitar and then arrows when to the piano keys. I went backwards, and learned the guitar songs off the radio, and then matched the notes up to the piano."

Here's famed accordionist Charles Magnante, playing decades later in another radio studio, with his trio. 

Let Me Off Uptown!

 

Kay was ahead of her time, with Kazoo Swing

 

Recently, I heard this swingin' 1940 tune by "Doctor Sausage and His Five Pork Chops" (!), and it reminded me of part of a letter I found among Kay's paperwork. So far I've only found the second page, so I don't know who she was writing the letter to, but Kay tells about using novelty kazoos with the young women in the correctional center where she led a small band. Almost all the women played by ear, and they'd learned the solos and melodies from listening to the radio, but they didn't know the background parts. When the women were frustrated that they weren't getting a full swing sound, Kay explained about the parts different instruments play in an ensemble, and at a dime store she'd found some kazoos shapewd like trombones and saxes. She'd brought these in for the next band rehearsal and at first the women resisted the idea of playing music on toys. But apparently Kay did a killer sax solo from Claude Hopkins' "Swinging Down the Lane," and the women did try mimicking parts from records with the pretend horns. There were a lot of goofing around and giggling, and a couple of jousters had to be disarmed, but the women did seem to get the idea and after that Kay was able to help the group create some simple arrangements that sounded better to everyone's ears. 

In Kay's era, the world needed a nonstop flow of morale-raising songs

Like this one!

Why Broadway mattered to Kay, even if she never spent much time in New York

 Kay was much more likely to spend time in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and occasionally out West than she was to go to the East Coast. Most of her performing career was connected with bond rallies / concerts, and her contacts with people she knew made it possible to do the shows very cheaply so that all the proceeds could go to fight the Second World War and then to recover from the war afterward. 

So when I first began researching the popular culture of Kay's time, I was slow to pay attention to Broadway. Then I realized that musicals and revues were the source of songs which appeared on the network readio programs heard across the nation. 

For example, the review "The Show Is On," which ran for about a year from the fall of 1936 to the fall of 1937 produced the Hoagy Carmichael hit "Little Old Lady," here covered by Ray Noble and his orchestra. 

Comedy short shown at Scott Air Field , where Kay once worked

 

Bob Burns' "Bazooka" was so popular that versions were sold. Here are photos from an eBay auction listing:

Gold mine of PDF images of radio / movie mags from Kay's era

 https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Guide/1938/Radio-Guide-38-10-01.pdf

If you were wondering what military life for women was like in Kay's era. . .

 Yikes. This was made a few years after the war, but the attitudes didn't come out of nowhere. 

You sure you want to watch this? Okay...

As a girl, Kay sang on the radio to sell pancake syrup while Mary Small sang about a household cleanser

 

The Air Force and the Army were not the only service branches during World War II

  Here's bandlader Sam Donohue, who'd make a big splash in the mid-50s, with a Navy band in 1945. 

Music of Kay's era: The Walter Winchell Rumba

 A few years after the Andrews Sisters had a hit with this tune, Xavier Cugat and his orchestra also did a version for a movie musical. 

Gene Autry on the radio -- perhaps the start of Kay's dislike of Western music and movies?

 

Trumpeter Wilmot "Holly" Holinger in Gene Autry movie song about buying bonds

 The band backing Gene Autry in his bond-drive song includes (at far right) trumpeter Wilmot "Holly" Hollinger, who plays the distinctive muted trumpet intro to Al Dexter's bit hit "Pistol Packin' Mama."

Kay's career in the 1940s revolved around concerts and events centered on the sale of bonds. 

Female Texas pilot in World War II

 https://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p214coll2/id/4741/

The female crew of the Flying Forstress "Pistol Packin' Mama"

 Great photo, huh?

WWII Air Force musicians and the attic 78s

NPR story about grandson finding records

Novelty hit "Pico and Seoulveda (The Street Song)"

 Famous as Dr. Demento's theme song and a number in 1980s wacky musical "Forbidden Zone," in Kay's era, this was simply a novelty number by Felix Figueroa and His Orchestra, something along the lines of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)."

Outside Kay's Sphere: The Riobamba, the night club where Sheila Barrett did comedy & Frankie sang

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riobamba_(nightclub)

Comedy Teams of Kay's Era #2: Lonzo & Oscar

                            "I'm My Own Grandpa" by Lonzo & Oscar, 1947

Comedy Teams of Kay's Era #1: Lum & Abner

 

 Lum & Abner in 1943's "This Is Washington"

The former child singer knew the words. . .

 Kay, when very young, sang on the radio with her sister and cousins, and one of the 15-minute programs the girls appeared on took requests. "Hindustan" came up more than once, and Kay still remembered the words many decades later. By the 1940s, the song was almost always an instrumental to for dance bands to play, but when "Hinstustan" was popular in the FIRST World War, when it was played more slowly, had more exotic elements, and audiences participated in singalongs. 

 

"Sorry, the jukebox is out of order. . ." #1

 Certain novelty hits in Kay's era were played so often that bartenders would pretend that the jukebox wasn't working so they could get a break. The early 1950s had a number of rinky-dinky piano "special numbers" including Del Wood's hit from 1951. Lord knows how many performances of it Del gave in concert and on television and radio.

Hit Songs Kay Really Disliked #46 -- "Rosemary Clooney's Not Italian!"

 Both Kay and her life partner Wilmetta "Teeny" Stockton thought Rosemary Clooney's "Botch-A Me" sounded like a nursery rhyme and whenever it came on the radio or it got played on a jukebox, they'd take turns singing words from nursery rhymes like "Pop Goes the Weasel" or "London Bridge" to the "Botch-A Me" melody, cracking each other up. 

Hit Song Kay Really Dsiliked #342 -- Doris Day & Johnnie Ray duet

From the era when country music was still "country and western." There a cowboy/Western boom in music and entertainment in the early 50s and Kay felt that this stuff was replacing jazz, blues, and the kind of authentic country music The Carter Family sang. 

 

The 1953 record "Let's Walk That-A-Way" sounded a bit like something from "Oklahoma," which had opened on Broadway ten years earlier. 

 

y Vallee Royal Gelatin Hour with Shirley Booth 1936

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2iTYSiriWQ

Noble Sissle

 

Noble Sissle tap dancer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNyH4obrM-w

Air Force vs. Air Forces

 1942 Army Air Corps recruiting film https://vimeo.com/362807333

Radio Boys books

  Radio Boys 3 publishers  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Boys

Gay in Kay's Day #1 Spivy

SPIVY hITCHCOCK  https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x59qeot

mme spivy  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFfjoBONXU8

Brought To You By World War Two #1: Instant mashed potatoes

 Pic and two links

The de Paur infantry Chorus

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGt-vJjJY7A

Sheila Barrett at Spivy Le Voe's club

 http://sfbaytimes.com/spivy-last-fleur-de-levys/

Aztec Eagles Display at the USAF Museum

 https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196417/mexican-air-force-aircrews/

The Gumps

 comics website page about The Gumps, with downloadable comic strips

https://newspapercomicstripsblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/30/gumps/